Second Chances
by finalfanaticgorm
Summary: For Brandon Kelleher, it seemed life was all about second chances. His stay at The Knot was his biggest second chance of all.
AN: This is for **Guest** who requested I write a fanfiction about Brandon. I'm not sure if it'll be any good but I hope you enjoy it. And, again, if anyone has any requests - let me know and I'll do my best to write it. Based on _Rocket Boulsworth and an Answer for Everything_ , _The Ballabungie Detective Agency, The Tearpot, Jade the Magnificent_ and _Mountain Post._

Brandon Kelleher sat in the passenger seat of his social worker's car. After yet another failed foster placement (which had ended in disaster), no family was brave enough to foster him. Kim, his social worker, had despaired until she remembered the Boulsworths who fostered children at the Knot Farm on the island of Dirgelmor.

Kim looked at the twelve year old boy. He had been silent the entire trip so she attempted to engage him in conversation. "They're not like the other places, you know. The Knot - it's different." Brandon didn't say anything in response. He was focusing on looking out of the window at the glittering blue sea and had only been half-listening to Kim.

Kim turned the car onto a dirt track and Brandon turned away from the window when rows of hedges obscured his view. Barely a mile down the track, a herd of cows were stood directly in their path. The car came to a halt and Kim left the car and attempted to shoo the cows away.

Brandon saw his opportunity immediately. Whilst Kim was busy, he carefully unzipped her handbag and took her phone. He heard her say exasperatedly, "How about a little less mooing and a bit more moving?" He clambered out of the car and ran back the way they came. He didn't have a clue where he was going but he was _not_ going to another foster home.

He ran until he saw some cliffs overlooking the sea. He ran towards them, not realising the danger he was putting himself in. He sat down and pulled out Kim's phone. The sea looked a lot bigger than he thought it would, the waves crashing against the base of the cliff. He continued to watch the waves rippling, hoping no one would find him.

"There he is!" _Too late._ He looked up and saw Kim along with a woman, a girl and two boys carefully making their way down to him. One of the boys spoke, introducing himself and the others. "I'm Rocket. This is my sister Alli, my mum and my mate, Dibber. You'll be alright with us."

Brandon didn't say anything. If they thought he was running away because he was scared then more fool them. _They_ were the ones who should be scared. He continued to look out at the sea.

The woman moved closer to him and knelt down. "Hey, I was like you once, you know?" She told him. "I didn't have a mum or a dad I could stay with but then I found somewhere that made that not matter quite as much... A home. And we really hope that The Knot's going to be like that for you."

"Brandon!" Kim scolded. "Why did you run off like that?"

He looked at them briefly before pointing out towards the sea. "I'd never seen it before." He said simply.

"The sea!?" One of the boys - Rocket - asked incredulously.

"You're going to be seeing a lot of it now!" Alli said. "Don't stay on there." He could hear the confusion in her voice as she added, "Didn't you see the sign? It isn't safe." She clearly didn't know about his other secret either which he was glad about. Everyone would find out about it eventually - they always did. "Come back here - come on."

Brandon slowly got to his feet and started to move toward the crowd of people. Suddenly the rock crumbled underneath his feet and he slipped, causing Kim and the woman to grab him. Whilst they fussed over him, he heard the sound of a camera and Rocket saying, "He'll be okay."

The weeks passed. Against all the odds, Brandon actually started to settle in at The Knot. Of course, he had his ups and downs, mainly because of Healey (it seemed his life's ambition was to make Brandon's life a misery) but, for the first time, he began to feel like he had a home.

It wasn't to last, however. There was a fire at the school and the fingers of blame all pointed at him. His behaviour that day also hadn't helped his cause. As Rocket and Dibber worked to prove his innocence (by proving Healey had started the fire to frame him), Brandon had given up all hope. To him, it no longer mattered if he was proven innocent or not - nobody wanted him on the island.

When it was revealed that Healey hadn't started the fire but had instead been attending ballet school, Brandon decided to speak. PC Beddoe asked if anyone knew anything about the fire.

"I know something," he began. "I'm going to get the blame whether I did it or not."

"Brandon, shut up." Jade said. Everyone was looking at him as he continued.

"Cos of what I did. The reason no other family would take me - I burnt down my last home."

The crowd gasped, their faces shocked. "So what?" Jade argued. "It doesn't prove anything."

"It does in their eyes." Brandon said, glancing toward PC Beddoe and Mrs Sparks. "I'm going... and there's nothing you can do to stop me." He pushed past the crowd, Kim following, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

As he sat in Kim's car, waiting for the long line of traffic bound for the ferry to disperse, Kim's phone rang. She answered and spoke to the person on the line for quite some time. "That was Sarah." She said, answering Brandon's unasked question. "They've found out it was Daniel Sparks who started the fire and he is in serious trouble."

To his surprise, Brandon didn't feel any anger towards Dibber. In fact, he thought he understood why he had done it in the first place – Dibber had thought that he was taking Rocket away from him so he had done what he could to get him off the island. Perhaps it had been for the best. After all, something bad had been bound to happen sooner or later.

"I'm going back to the island on Saturday to talk to Sarah and Peter." Kim told him before adding, "You could come too."

So, a couple of days later, Brandon found himself back in Ballabungie. He told Kim he had something to do and walked off, knowing that Rocket still needed to forgive Dibber for what he had done. Reaching Dibber's house, he stood outside and saw Dibber staring through his bedroom window at him, looking terrified.

He knocked at the door for a few seconds before beginning to walk away. "I'm sorry!" Dibber called out.

"I know." Brandon informed him. "I'm not here cos I'm angry – I just want you to come with me." He saw Dibber cautiously open the front door and poke his head around it. He gestured for him to follow and, after a moment's hesitation, Dibber joined him.

They walked until they reached the centre of the parade outside the Oldest Man's shop. Brandon heard Kim saying, "I brought someone with me," as he and Dibber made their way to where Rocket, Jade and Archie were stood near a microphone.

Brandon stepped up to the microphone and spoke. "If this island didn't give out second chances, you wouldn't have let me off the ferry in the first place." He turned to Rocket. "You need to give Dibber one too."

Rocket glanced around. Jade nudged him and said, "Go on." With that encouragement, Rocket hi-fived Dibber and the crowd cheered. After they and the villagers all did the Dirgel dance, the Boulsworths, Jade, Archie, Kim and Brandon all headed to The Knot to dry off.

As he dried himself with a towel, he asked Sarah, "Is that room still free?" He asked.

Sarah smiled at him. "It's not _that_ room – it's _your_ room and it always will be." She grabbed another towel and dried his hair.

"You'd better unpack then." Peter told him.

So Brandon found himself being given another second chance. Things were going well for him. A whole year passed since he had first arrived at The Knot. In that time, nothing eventful happened until Sarah gave him a letter from his mum. He found himself torn over whether to read it or not. She hadn't bothered contacting him in eight years so why should he care what she had to say. There was a small part of him, however, that just wanted to read the letter and get it out of the way.

After he read the letter, he just wanted to forget about it. However the others kept telling him that it wasn't too late to reply. He kept putting it off, not sure if he wanted to contact his mum when she had never really liked him to begin with.

He eventually decided to contact her on his birthday, only for Sarah to inform him that she had passed away. He had left it too late. He could no longer speak to his mum. She would never know what he had done in his life.

Unable to face the others, he had hidden away and had eventually been found by Madison who informed him that everyone was looking for him. When he stepped out of the box, Sarah and Peter walked into the barn with a woman. She had reddish hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes.

"This is Brandon." Sarah said, gesturing towards him.

"Who are you?" He asked, not recognizing her.

The woman fumbled in her pocket. "I'm Amy." She introduced herself. "Y-Your sister." She added as she pulled out a photo exactly the same as the one Brandon kept, except hers also showed a teenage girl.

After Sarah arranged with Social Services for visiting rights to be established between the two long-lost siblings, life continued on as normal.

A couple of weeks later, the Knot kids made a discovery – a postbox atop what was obviously just a really tall hill yet the villagers referred to it as Mountain Post. After the Oldest Man explained how it worked, Brandon decided he would write to his mum. It was his chance to ask all sorts of questions he wished he could have asked. Alli refused to help him so he had to write the letter himself. When he got a reply, he was elated and when he received his old kaleidoscope, it left no doubt in his mind that it really was his mum writing to him.

The others, however, were suspicious. Having at first accused Izzy of writing the letters, they then informed Brandon that Alli was responsible for the letters so they headed into the village to confront her.

"Hey, you do not get on that bus!" Sarah shouted angrily as they all walked towards Alli who was stood near the bus stop with Wayne II.

"We know it was you, Alli, writing the letters." Jade said.

"It wasn't." Alli insisted.

"Why are you running away then?" Rocket asked.

"Just come to meet someone, that's all." She informed them.

"Who?" Brandon questioned.

Alli sighed. "I thought that if you had a ton of questions about when you were little and stuff, there was someone in the here and now who could answer them. And sometimes only a big sister will do." She finished as Amy stepped off the bus. "All I did was get Amy's number from your phone and see if she'd talk to you."

"It's not Alli's fault." Amy explained. "I asked her to get the letters and read them to me. It was my choice to reply in the way that I did."

Alli then added. "As soon as I realized how far it had gone, I told her she had to come over and tell you the truth..."

Brandon spoke up. "I actually believed my mum could still write to me – be proud of me. How dumb am I?"

"But she did!" Amy told him. "She is and she did!" Brandon frowned as Amy referred to his mum in the present tense. "So that's just it – your mum's not who you think, Bran. Your mum's... me."

After that revelation, Brandon ran, heading to the Wish Cave. Amy found him there and talked to him about how she wished she could undo leaving him before inviting him to live with her on the mainland.

At any other foster home, Brandon would have jumped at the chance but The Knot had done so much for him. He wasn't sure he could leave, even if he wanted to, until Rocket, Alli and Jade pointed out that he couldn't stay forever and that he would always be a Knot kid wherever he was.

He headed for the bus which was, thankfully, still at the stop and tapped the window where Amy was sitting. "What is it?" She asked, looking at him.

"I know I can't leave here yet but next time you leave, I want to leave with you." He told her.

"How come?" She asked, curious by his change of heart.

Brandon looked at her. "Because you're my mum." As the engine started, they placed their hands against the window and he walked alongside the bus until it picked up speed, leaving him standing in the middle of the road.

For the second time, Brandon found himself leaving The Knot, except this time it was under happier circumstances. After Jade, Rocket and Archie had hugged him goodbye, he headed toward the truck and waved. The crowd of people: Rocket, Alli, Sarah, Jade, Archie, Dibber, Izzy and even the Oldest Man waved back.

As the truck drove away from The Knot and onto the main road, Brandon realized that he had been given yet another second chance and he was determined to make the most of it. He knew he would never forget what everyone at The Knot had done for him - it had led to him finally getting a happy ending. With that in mind, he looked out at the rolling scenery and yelled happily, "Gardyloo!"


End file.
